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Comment by Fhch6HQ | Hacker News Reader

Russian is neither a common lingua franca nor is it commonly spoken by foreigners (with the obvious exclusion of former Soviet countries). It belongs culturally to Russia and it's people. English belongs to half a dozen countries.

I'm not sure I agree with the original commenter, but I see the merit in their perspective.

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Is English commonly spoken by countries that aren't former British colonies? I am a Ukranian citizen, and if I can speak Russian, and not have that kind of prejudice, you should also be able to. In fact most Ukrainians speak Russian.

To answer your question directly, yes. By population, 55% of Germany, 57% of France, 49% of Poland, 51% of Ukraine, 90% of the Netherlands, 89% of Sweden, 73% of Austria, 30% of Romania, 39% of Croatia [0]. Apologies in advance if any of these countries are former British colonies, I don't claim to be knowledgeable on world history.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-s...

This is not true. Like literally factually incorrect.

Most people in big cities can speak russian due to russia's colonization strategy. But it's far from "most Ukrainians".

Saying this as Ukrainian citizen who has seen more Ukraine (both eastern and western parts) than just a few big cities.

It's true that Ukranian is more prevalent in western Ukraine, but that is a minority. Most people live in Kyiv, and prefer to speak Russian, including the current president of Ukraine. Or at least this was the case before the war started, and a huge chunk of population left the country.

Ukraine population before russian invasion of 2022 ~40M Kyiv population before russian invasion if 2022 <3M

> Most people live in Kyiv

This perfectly demonstrates your level of expertise and trustworthiness of your opinions.

Go home, and don't forget to buy some vodka in пятерочка.

after russian invasion many of those who preferred to speak russian swore off speaking russian. do you want to guess why ?

as other poster wrote, don't forget to collect your 15 rubel and buy some vodka on the way home

> do you want to guess why ?

Because they were brainwashed by the government.

let me guess, they consumed spiked up oranges ? and you are the only one who could resist it ? and russia launching war in the middle of the night has absolutely nothing to do with it ?

Exactly that gives ruskies propaganda talking points to invade Ukraine by saying they don’t like how Ukrainians treated russian speakers.

British King isn’t delusional enough to start war with neighboring English speaking country.

> Exactly that gives ruskies propaganda talking points to invade Ukraine by saying they don’t like how Ukrainians treated russian speakers.

The Russians have a point there. I wish the Russian language was an official language in Ukraine, and I wish I could speak Russian in Ukraine without restrictions, but unfortunately the Ukranian government chose to instead try and force people to speak Ukranian at school, etc. But that obviously doesn't justify starting a war.

> British King isn’t delusional enough to start war with neighboring English speaking country.

Do they even have a neighbouring country that speaks English? They are dumb enough to quit EU though.

Wishing a national identity and sovereignty did not exist just for your convenience is what this thread is about.

> I wish I could speak Russian in Ukraine without restrictions

There weren't meaningful restrictions. A large number of Ukrainians still speak Russian a lot. Instead this sounds like "forcing" a number of people to speak to you in a particular language in order for you to not feel "restricted".

> There weren't meaningful restrictions.

I was forced to speak Ukranian at school. Is this not a meaningful restriction to you?

> Instead this sounds like "forcing" a number of people to speak to you in a particular language in order for you to not feel "restricted".

Unlike Ukranian government, I never forced anyone to speak any particular language. In fact, what happens when one person prefers to speak Ukrainian, and the other person prefers to speak Russian, is they just do, and they both understand each other just fine.

100%. I saw some vids from Ukrainian frontlines where people say speaking Russian is a problem because in fast situations it's more difficult to identify if you're enemy. This means even there some people speak Russian

It's just about education in schools and official use. And it's crazy to blame a country for requiring using its home language at schools

Ukranian was not my home language. Russian was.

So if Ukrainian is not your home language why didn’t you move home where Russian is your home language?

> Do they even have a neighbouring country that speaks English?

Ireland.

English is an official language in Ireland, so it is not like Ukraine.

Take any neighbouring country in Europe

Tons of people totally speak English there. But it's not an official language. And government totally forces kids to speak French/Dutch/whatever in schools. if England invades Netherland will you say they also have a point?;)

The point is that Ukraine used to be a part of Soviet Union, and this is why "obviously" Ukranians speak Russian, and we are drawing a parallel to how former British colonies also speak English. France et al are not former British colonies, and I assume they prefer to speak their native language at home, and not English. Not because they are forced to, but because English is not their native language.

You're free to go to russia, where russian is the official language.

But I think you're already there, just trying to spread russian propaganda posing as Ukrainian

Why would I want to go to Russia? I left Ukraine because I don't want to be sent to war, and the same could happen if I were in Russia.

Kazakhstan is in the same situation. The people would be better off speaking Russian, although it should not be forced through violence.

See Hong Kong + Mandarain, etc...

The propagation of English is due to the influence of America and Britain. If you look at the history of what those two have been up to all around the world, it's not pretty.

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